Wondering how to optimise your plant assets? This page breaks down what effective plant asset management entails, reveals its crucial role in boosting your bottom line and demonstrates how cutting-edge technology can elevate your operational capabilities. As your operations grow and your plant asset operations become more complex, visibility becomes essential, not optional. Without it, costs spiral and productivity suffers. Let’s first start with the basics and delve into the importance of technology for an efficient fleet.
What is plant asset management?
Plant asset management is a comprehensive approach to overseeing and optimising the use of your long-term, fixed assets within a construction environment. It is used to alleviate the high costs and inefficiencies your business can incur when assets aren't maintained or used properly. Typically, plant asset management involves monitoring the location of the asset, its maintenance needs and having insight into its replacement cycle. Theft is also a common issue in the construction industry, with 70% of construction workers witnessing theft on-site every year. This results in delays to at least one-third of projects, costing the sector £800 million annually.
Continuing with construction, plant assets in this sector encompass all physical equipment and machinery, including heavy machinery and special equipment (bulldozers and cranes), to delivery vehicles and dump trucks. Proper identification and tracking of these assets is crucial for an efficient construction operation.
When we talk about plant asset management and fleet management, both are key to keeping a watchful eye on your valuable vehicles and assets. Ultimately, saving your construction business unnecessary costs and inefficiencies in the long run.
Why is plant asset management important?
Effective plant asset management delivers immediate benefits: reducing unnecessary costs from fuel waste and theft while optimising your maintenance schedules to extend equipment life. You'll also find increased compliance and safety, as a result, with it being easier to meet regulatory requirements, enhancing workplace safety across all operations.
For businesses juggling multiple job sites, the cross-site visibility becomes invaluable, allowing informed decisions about resource allocation and preventing expensive duplications in your equipment fleet. This comprehensive oversight transforms how you deploy, maintain and maximise your construction assets.
How can plant asset management software help organisations?
By collecting real-time data on location, usage and status using plant asset management software, you'll eliminate the guesswork that often leads to costly mistakes. Your team can gain access to centralised asset records, making planning and reporting dramatically more efficient. The system works proactively, sending timely maintenance alerts based on actual usage, not just calendar dates.
With reduced paperwork and manual errors, you can focus on what matters: optimising performance across all sites while maintaining compliance. This systematic approach ensures you're always audit-ready with complete documentation at your fingertips.
What are the common challenges in implementing plant asset management?
Companies can come across various challenges when trying to implement a new system. Here are some of the most common challenges you may face:
- Initially, locating all of your existing assets that may have been moved between multiple locations and even discovering that you have lost assets worth thousands.
- Connecting any existing operational software often creates unexpected technical roadblocks that delay implementation and frustrate your teams.
- Manual processes will become obsolete, therefore, teams will need re-training on new systems and require compelling evidence that new technology will make their daily work easier, not more complicated.
- Starting with incomplete or inaccurate asset records will negatively impact your entire system's effectiveness, as your reporting is only as reliable as the information feeding into it.
Plant tracking as part of asset management
Webfleet have recently transformed asset management at Hinkley Point C, one of Europe's most complex construction projects, with the Webfleet LINK 340 solution. Helping them track and manage 400 critical assets across this massive nuclear power station site, cutting administrative workload while delivering substantial energy cost savings.
You can transform operations through digitisation similar to what has been achieved at Hinkley Point C, here are some benefits:
- Tracks your assets alongside your fleet on one interface
- Supports scheduled maintenance tasks to help avoid costly downtime
- Notifies you when your asset is moved, deterring unauthorised usage and allowing you to react quickly to theft
- Improves accuracy and efficiency of rental billing or asset bookkeeping
Equipment tracking and digitization
Vehicles are just one aspect of an ecosystem of equipment that keeps your projects moving forward. Your non-powered assets represent significant investments that often go unmonitored. Webfleet's equipment tracking solutions bring your non-powered assets into your digital ecosystem, creating a single source of truth for all resources. Our robust tracking devices deliver real-time data directly to your management platform. By digitising your entire equipment inventory, you'll drive smarter scheduling and proactive maintenance.
Webfleet and plant asset visibility
Webfleet is designed to transform how you manage your valuable assets across every site. Our solution delivers complete visibility of both powered and non-powered equipment through real-time tracking and automated utilisation reports.
Your business deserves more from its substantial equipment investment. That's why our advanced vehicle tracking system goes beyond basic location data, protecting your assets with custom geofencing alerts that notify you immediately if equipment leaves designated areas. With Webfleet's comprehensive asset tracking capabilities, you'll dramatically increase productivity, simplify compliance processes, and reduce operating costs while maintaining ironclad security. Book a demo today and see how we're turning asset management from a daily challenge into your competitive advantage.
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